Climate Resilience and Hazard Mitigation

The goal of ELI's Resilience Program is to support communities and the ecosystems they rely on to survive and thrive in the face of climate change impacts. ELI believes in the ability of well-crafted legal, policy, institutional, and planning tools and meaningful community engagement to engender sustainable change that addresses historic inequities. Our work identifies and builds valuable partnerships and community capacity, prioritizes solutions based on best available science and traditional knowledge, and provides actionable recommendations to overcome challenges. ELI supports and promotes efforts to ensure nature-based solutions are given equal consideration and identifies barriers and opportunities to scale-up natural infrastructure. 

We are working in five main areas:

Getting People and Property Out of Harm’s Way

Fires, storms, and floods destroyed tens of thousands of residential structures in 2017 alone, leaving many thousands of families to face decisions about whether to rebuild in place or move to less risky areas. We have been working with local partners across the U.S. to develop practical, implementable recommendations for how communities can strategically and equitably move people out of harm’s way and reduce the risk of future structural damage and associated disaster recovery costs in disaster-prone areas.

Floodplain Buyouts: An Action Guide for Local Governments on How to Maximize Community Benefits, Habitat Connectivity, and Resilience

This Action Guide is designed to help local governments across the country leverage hazard mitigation buyouts to protect, restore, and connect habitats in local communities. Greatly informed by the information gathered through in-depth case studies and conversations with key players in local buyout programs, the Guide highlights management approaches that will be useful and practicable for the local officials and managers who have the ability to target their acquisitions in ways that improve habitat connectivity and resilience while also reducing flood hazards.

Strategic Partnerships and Floodplain Buyouts: An Opportunity for Wetland Restoration

This Handbook summarizes key considerations for wetland and conservation agencies or organizations interested in playing a role in the floodplain buyout process. These organizations can be valuable partners for local governments while advancing their interest in ecosystem and habitat conservation or restoration.

Helping Governments Create Resilient Communities

National, state, local, and tribal governments can strengthen their communities by updating and leveraging existing laws and regulations to address hazards amplified by climate change. When thoughtfully designed and implemented, legal tools can help communities reduce their exposure to climate risks, create economic incentives for proactive climate adaptation action, and establish funding mechanisms for resilience. ELI analyzes current statutory and regulatory frameworks to guide government decision-making and identifies avenues for bolstering resilience in new policy development.

Legal Risk Analysis for Sea Level Rise Adaptation Strategies in San Diego

Adapting to sea level rise raises significant legal questions for local governments, especially in California. This report concisely summarizes the legal risks and administrative hurdles associated with different adaptation strategies in order to facilitate informed decisionmaking. An Executive Summary to the full report is also available.

Green Infrastructure for Chesapeake Stormwater Management: Legal Tools for Climate Resilient Siting

One of the greatest impacts of climate change on the Chesapeake Bay watershed will be stormwater management. This report examines and addresses the potential legal obstacles and describes the most promising pathways within the existing legal framework. For state and municipal leaders looking to go even further, the report recommends specific actions that legislative and regulatory bodies can take to modify the current stormwater management regime so as to more easily incorporate pragmatic consideration of climate change impacts. A fact sheet on the report is available here.

Indoor Air Quality in Homes: State Policies for Improving Health Now and Addressing Future Risks in a Changing Climate

Over the past several years, scientists have begun to examine and describe comprehensively how indoor air quality (IAQ) may be affected by a changing climate. This report reviews state policies addressing three residential IAQ issues discussed in the recent scientific literature: wildfire smoke; dampness and mold; and the effect of home energy efficiency upgrades on IAQ. The report describes in detail current state laws, regulations, and other policies, and highlights approaches for consideration by other jurisdictions. By taking action to reduce indoor exposures, states have an opportunity to put in place policies that not only prepare for anticipated increased future risks, but also reap considerable health and economic benefits in the near term.

The Water Efficiency and Conservation State Scorecard: An Assessment of Laws

In partnership with the Alliance for Water Efficiency, ELI released a scorecard in 2017 that “reviewed, scored, [and] graded states for laws supporting water conservation and efficiency. […] Though based on a 16-question survey, the 2017 update is an expansion of [an earlier] 2012 edition; the underlying survey includes three new questions and a series of sub-questions for more complex topic areas. The goal of these changes was to develop a deeper understanding of legal frameworks supporting water conservation and efficiency, and climate resiliency planning.

Five Things to Consider When Developing and Adapting Water Policies and Programs in the West

This guidebook identifies common factors that influence the success of water policies or programs in the prior appropriation context, and provides examples of each factor to further clarify the issue. The guidebook is intended to help decision-makers at the state and local levels develop new policies and programs that are best tailored to navigate potential obstacles to achieving the desired outcomes. It also is intended to serve as an aid for reviewing successful policies and programs elsewhere to determine whether conditions in a new location are sufficiently similar to those of the original location to replicate the results.

Western Water in the 21st Century: Policies and Programs that Stretch Supplies in a Prior Appropriation World

In Western Water in the 21st Century: Policies and Programs that Stretch Supplies in a Prior Appropriation World, ELI identifies and explains illustrative examples of reforms from across the West with the potential to:

  1. Reduce the active disincentives against reducing water use and supporting future supplies by adding to the definition of “beneficial use” or exempting more activities from forfeiture and abandonment;
  2. Allow the use of conserved water (from reductions in consumption and evaporative losses) beyond what is permitted in the water right; or
  3. Accelerate the transfer process, particularly for short-term transfers.

The Handbook also addresses the circumstances under which the policies and programs arose and their results (in the view of those familiar with their application).

Incorporating Climate Change Adaptation Into Framework Environmental Laws

This Article examines the various ways countries throughout the world have started to incorporate considerations of climate change adaptation into their framework environmental laws, implementing regulations, and other binding instruments. The authors identify seven particularly important categories of adaptation provisions—assessment and science, planning, EIA, disaster preparedness and response, funding, coordination through creation of special committees and expert groups, and monitoring and evaluation of adaptation measures—and offer their reflections on practical considerations.

Legal and Policy Tools to Adapt Biodiversity Management to Climate Change

This Resource Manual is a call to use available legal tools, ranging from laws to policies, to adapt biodiversity management to better withstand the effects of climate change. Written for resource managers, policymakers, scientists, academics, civil society groups, and others affected by climate change, it explains how legal frameworks can be adapted to meet changing climate conditions that threaten biodiversity protection.

Helping Communities Become Resilient

Educating community members about climate risks and vulnerabilities and involving them in the adaptation planning process builds support around efforts to improve resilience and ensures that the resulting plans reflect local priorities. ELI’s work is helping to make communities more livable for all residents, especially the most vulnerable and disadvantaged.

Step-by-Step Guide to Integrating Community Input into Green Infrastructure Projects

ELI and its partner Amigos Bravos drafted this Guide to help local governments integrate community input into their green infrastructure projects. It sets out eight steps that local governments can take and, for each step, provides details and tips to help local governments as they move through the process.

Public Participation for Buyout Planning & Management: A step-by-step online guide

ELI developed a five-step outline for organizing public participation in the floodplain buyout process based on research and our experiences with pilot projects in Iowa, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The steps in this guide will help local governments solicit community feedback on post-acquisition management projects.

Community revitalization (Blight Revitalization Initiative for Green, Healthy Towns/BRIGHT program)

ELI’s Blight Revitalization Initiative for Green, Healthy Towns (BRIGHT) identifies corridors of blighted, vacant, and environmentally-impaired properties in overburdened communities and supports the community and municipality in developing a revitalization plan. Combining community-level engagement with organization and financial support from the private sector, government, and NGOs, BRIGHT catalyzes environmental justice, neighborhood revitalization, economic opportunity, green infrastructure, ecosystem restoration, and climate resilience. To facilitate the sharing of best practices in corridor redevelopment, ELI is currently developing the BRIGHT Guide.

Washed Out: Policy and Practical Considerations Affecting Return after Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy

The destructive impacts of Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy displaced large numbers of people. While some families were able to return home soon after the disasters, others struggled to do so and remained displaced for extended periods of time. This article presents an overview of recent literature that addresses factors affecting displaced individuals’ decision to return home or relocate following these two disasters. […] The article concludes that a better understanding of factors affecting displaced persons can help policymakers meet their objectives of encouraging or inhibiting return to a specific site after a disaster.

Promoting Nature-Based Adaptation Strategies and Creating Resilient Ecosystems

Natural infrastructure plays an important role in protecting human communities from the impacts of climate change. Hurricane Sandy provides a clear illustration of the value of coastal wetlands as mitigation. According to one study, for example, existing wetlands prevented $625 million in property damage in storm affected areas. Recently, increased emphasis has been placed on the restoration and protection of natural (or green) infrastructure, including the restoration of natural habitats, as cost-effective alternatives for hazard mitigation. In 2015, for example, FEMA announced the eligibility of new activities for mitigation funding, including floodplain and stream restoration. ELI’s work is helping to promote proactive policies that can preserve ecosystem function and maintain ecosystem services in the face of climate-related disasters.

Navigating Federal Permits and Environmental Reviews to Facilitate Use of Nature-Based Solutions

*NEW* Natural and nature-based infrastructure (NNBI) projects have been shown to be helpful in addressing environmental problems across various landscapes and to provide co-benefits not offered by traditional infrastructure solutions. However, as they are increasingly considered for implementation, project proponents face the necessity of securing regulatory approval from the appropriate federal or state authorities. Understanding that regulatory landscape, including the potential pitfalls and opportunities it presents for innovative approaches such as NNBI, is essential to the successful and efficient implementation of NNBI projects and project elements.

This report reviews the regulatory landscape with an eye toward aiding NNBI project proponents to understand some of the laws and processes at work, how they are evolving, and how they might prepare to navigate regulatory requirements effectively.

Embedding Natural Resource Expertise in Hazard Mitigation Planning: Opportunities for Integration in the Mississippi River Basin

*NEW*  The purpose of this report is to identify opportunities for scaling up the use of natural and nature-based infrastructure projects as hazard mitigation strategies, focusing on the formation of better partnerships that build the capacity of decision-makers to effectively address flood hazard risks. It includes lessons and recommendations developed during an October 2023 workshop convened by ELI for wetland agencies and hazard mitigation planners  to discuss opportunities for using wetland and floodplain restoration and protection prioritization tools and methodologies in the hazard mitigation planning process, as well as to discuss partnership-building among wetland and natural resource agencies and organizations, hazard mitigation planners, and project developers.

While many of the opportunities and lessons highighted in this report will apply in communities across the U.S., this report is focused geographically on the Mississippi River Basin, where the ongoing and increasing flood risks challenging the current infrastructure highlight a growing need to find adaptive solutions—and present an important opportunity to leverage and advance nature-based hazard mitigation efforts.

Prioritization and Acceleration of Natural and Nature-Based Solutions: Pathways to Phased Implementation of Complex Water Resource Projects

*NEW* This report uses examples of past practice to demonstrate to project sponsors, agencies, and stakeholders that several viable pathways exist for accelerating nature-based solutions by advancing a phased, adaptive approach to large-scale water resource project development and implementation.

Overcoming Barriers Created by Cost Share Requirements: Considerations for Advancing Natural Infrastructure throughout the Mississippi River Basin

*NEW* This report examines barriers to infrastructure investment created by cost share requirements and suggests some potential steps governments can take to make funding programs more accessible and equitable, as well as steps communities themselves can take to raise funds to meet the local cost share requirement. Appendices I and II of this report provide a survey of various federal and state programs that fund resilience and natural infrastructure projects and highlight best practices and challenges from those programs with respect to cost share implementation.

Identifying Common Challenges in Partnering with the Army Corps of Engineers 

*NEW* Non-federal partners’ ability to enter into and implement partnership agreements with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is an important factor in the successful advancement of natural and nature-based solutions through the Corps’ civil works authorities.

This report examines project partnership agreements, their role in the greater context of water resource development projects, and common obstacles the agreements pose for the non-federal partner. We identify particularly challenging provisions included within the model PPAs, the provisions’ legal origins, and their actual and perceived impacts.

Developing Wetland Restoration Priorities for Climate Risk Reduction and Resilience in the MARCO Region

Working with New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia — the five members of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO) — the Environmental Law Institute prepared a detailed assessment of methods to identify, conserve, and restore wetlands for protection of communities and ecosystems in the face of rapid climate change. ELI in collaboration with an expert panel designed an approach that can accommodate continuous improvement by resource managers, legislators, and policy makers.

Floodplain Buyouts: An Action Guide for Local Governments on How to Maximize Community Benefits, Habitat Connectivity, and Resilience

This Action Guide is designed to help local governments across the country leverage hazard mitigation buyouts to protect, restore, and connect habitats in local communities. Greatly informed by the information gathered through in-depth case studies and conversations with key players in local buyout programs, the Guide highlights management approaches that will be useful and practicable for the local officials and managers who have the ability to target their acquisitions in ways that improve habitat connectivity and resilience while also reducing flood hazards.

Strategic Partnerships and Floodplain Buyouts: An Opportunities for Wetland Restoration

This Handbook summarizes key considerations for wetland and conservation agencies or organizations interested in playing a role in the floodplain buyout process. These organizations can be valuable partners for local governments while advancing their interest in ecosystem and habitat conservation or restoration.

Five Things to Consider When Developing and Adapting Water Policies and Programs in the West

This guidebook identifies common factors that influence the success of water policies or programs in the prior appropriation context, and provides examples of each factor to further clarify the issue. The guidebook is intended to help decision-makers at the state and local levels develop new policies and programs that are best tailored to navigate potential obstacles to achieving the desired outcomes. It also is intended to serve as an aid for reviewing successful policies and programs elsewhere to determine whether conditions in a new location are sufficiently similar to those of the original location to replicate the results.

Western Water in the 21st Century: Policies and Programs that Stretch Supplies in a Prior Appropriation World

In Western Water in the 21st Century: Policies and Programs that Stretch Supplies in a Prior Appropriation World, ELI identifies and explains illustrative examples of reforms from across the West with the potential to:

  1. Reduce the active disincentives against reducing water use and supporting future supplies by adding to the definition of “beneficial use” or exempting more activities from forfeiture and abandonment;
  2. Allow the use of conserved water (from reductions in consumption and evaporative losses) beyond what is permitted in the water right; or
  3. Accelerate the transfer process, particularly for short-term transfers.

The Handbook also addresses the circumstances under which the policies and programs arose and their results (in the view of those familiar with their application).

Legal and Policy Tools to Adapt Biodiversity Management to Climate Change

This Resource Manual is a call to use available legal tools, ranging from laws to policies, to adapt biodiversity management to better withstand the effects of climate change. Written for resource managers, policymakers, scientists, academics, civil society groups, and others affected by climate change, it explains how legal frameworks can be adapted to meet changing climate conditions that threaten biodiversity protection.

Building Coastal Resilience to More Severe Storms and Rising Seas

More severe storms and rising sea levels resulting from the changing climate pose a significant threat to communities, ecosystems, and infrastructure along the United States coast. Coastal storms are expected to become more intense, and sea levels are projected to rise by as much as 7 feet by 2100. Storm surges and inundation by rising seas threaten hundreds of coastal communities and millions of homes. Coastal ecosystems, including beaches, dunes, wetlands, and marshes, which provide significant environmental, recreational, and economic benefits, will need to migrate inland. Critical infrastructure in coastal areas, ranging from transportation, energy, and water facilities to defense assets will need to be protected or relocated.

Local, state, and federal governments are increasing planning and investments to improve coastal resilience. These efforts, however, face challenging legal and financial obstacles, and new practices are needed to improve attention to social justice in this work. The Environmental Law Institute works to develop the body of scholarship that builds more effective practices to sustain coastal communities and ecosystems. 

In a related effort, the Environmental Law Institute's Ocean Program includes an initiative focused on the restoration and recovery of the Gulf of Mexico. Through this initiative, the Ocean Program has produced several reports, webinars, and blogs focused specifically on the Gulf, including coastal resilience issues. 

Webinars and Podcasts

Federal Leadership for Relocation of Coastal Communities in Response to More Severe Storms and Rising Seas

More severe storms and rising sea levels along the coast of the United States pose a threat to coastal communities, infrastructure, and ecosystems. The Biden Administration has proposed to develop a framework to support communities that express an interest in relocating their homes and businesses to higher, safer ground. In this webinar, panelists from academia, nonprofit organizations, and federal agencies discuss principles and policies that the federal government may adopt as it develops a national framework for relocation of coastal communities. Jeffrey Peterson, Visiting Scholar at Environmental Law Institute, moderates the panel that includes Gary Griggs, Distinguished Professor of Earth Sciences, UC Santa Cruz; Micah McMillian, Senior Analyst, Natural Resources and Environment Team, U.S. Government Accountability Office; Linda Shi, Assistant Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University; and A.R. Siders, Assistant Professor, University of Delaware. A written discussion and summary of this webinar is available here.  

Managing Threats to America’s Beaches from Storms and Rising Seas

The Environmental Law Institute hosted a public webinar in which panelists discussed the risks severe storms and rising seas pose to our nation's beaches. Webinar panelists described practices and measures that have been implemented to sustain beaches and dunes in the face of these threats. Jeff Peterson, ELI Visiting Scholar, moderated the webinar, and panelists included: Lauren Blickley from the Surfrider Foundation, Travis Brandon from Belmont College of Law, Charles Lester from the Ocean and Coastal Policy Center at the Marine Science Institute at UC Santa Barbara, and Sean Vitousek from the Pacific Coastal and Marine Center at USGS. A transcript and recording of the webinar are provided within the link above. 

Sustaining Coastal Wetlands in a Time of Severe Storms and Rising Seas

In this webinar, Environmental Law Institute Visiting Scholar, Jeff Peterson, moderated a panel of experts, including Nicole Cardozo from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Emily Donahoe from the National Wildlife Foundation, Amanda Santoni from the U.S. EPA's Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds, and Mallory Eastland from the South Atlantic Salt Marsh Initiative. Panelists discussed efforts to improve planning, investing, and regulating for existing wetlands protection and the upland areas that wetlands will migrate to as sea levels rise. A transcript and recording of the webinar are provided within the link above.  

Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Resilience with Lawyers and Authors Susan Crawford and Robert Verchick

Environmental Law Institute Visiting Scholar, Jeff Peterson, sits down with John A. Reilly Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, Susan Crawford, and Gauthier-St. Martin Eminent Scholar Chair in Environmental Law at Loyola University New Orleans, Robert Verchick, to discuss their books, published in early 2023, that address coastal resilience challenges in this People, Places, Planet Podcast episode. Among others, topics covered in this podcast episode include the challenges posed by sea-level rise, the importance of social justice in climate adaptation, and the role of law in addressing climate change. 

Legal and Policy Issues of Sea Level Rise

In this People, Places, Planet Podcast episode, Environmental Law Institute Staff Attorney, Jarryd Page, sits down with USC Gould School of Law Professor, Robin Kundis Craig, to discuss the legal and policy implications of sea-level rise adaptation.

Workshops, Conferences, and Trainings

Communicating Complex Science: The Challenge of Sea Level Rise

With grant funding from the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Law Institute and the George Washington University Law School's Environmental and Energy Law Program convened a panel of experts to discuss the legal and policy landscapes and scientific updates for sea-level rise. Workshop panelists offered best practices for engaging different audiences on sea-level rise science, examined topical scientific reports and case studies, and reviewed legal and policy issues created by climate change-induced sea-level rise. 

Reports and Articles 

Legal Risk Analysis for Sea Level Rise Adaptation Strategies in San Diego

Adapting to sea level rise raises significant legal questions for local governments, especially in California. This report concisely summarizes the legal risks and administrative hurdles associated with different adaptation strategies in order to facilitate informed decision-making. 

Strategic Partnerships and Floodplain Buyouts: An Opportunity for Wetland Restoration

This Handbook summarizes key considerations for wetland and conservation agencies or organizations interested in playing a role in the floodplain buyout process. These organizations can be valuable partners for local governments while advancing their interests in ecosystem and habitat conservation or restoration. 

Floodplain Buyouts: An Action Guide for Local Governments on How to Maximize Community Benefits, Habitat Connectivity, and Resilience 

This Action Guide is designed to help local governments across the country leverage hazard mitigation buyouts to protect, restore, and connect habitats in local communities. Informed by in-depth case studies and conversations with key players in local buyout programs, the Guide highlights practicable management approaches for local officials to target their acquisitions in ways that improve habitat connectivity and resilience and reduce flood hazards. 

Global Warming and Property Interests: Preserving Coastal Wetlands as Sea Levels Rise

This 1991 article explains how American property law might keep pace with climate change-related impacts on natural systems, such as the impacts of rising sea levels on coastal wetlands. 

Blog Posts 

Navigating the Murky Waters of Sea-Level Rise Adaptation

Professor Robin Kundis Craig of the USC Gould School of Law offers insight into the socioeconomic and cultural event that is sea-level rise. Because sea-level rise implicates more than just property rights and land-use planning, Craig argues, the creative deployment of a comprehensive legal framework—one informed by many different kinds of legal expertise—is needed to meet the challenges sea-level rise poses.

How Do We Bounce Back? Defining and Measuring Community Resilience

This blog post discusses the various ways in which leading organizations have defined and measured "community resilience" as applied in the context of climate change-exacerbated natural disasters. Lack of tenable guidance for this term can challenge communities' abilities to develop methods of measuring their resilience. Local governments, however, can meet this challenge by taking stock of their local needs and capacities to choose the most appropriate definitions and metrics to assess their communities' levels of resilience. 

The Climate Adaptation Agenda: Federal Pathways to Equipping Coastal Cities with Adaptive Infrastructure

This blog post offers practical recommendations for the Biden Administration as it moves towards implementing a climate adaptation policy framework. Complementary to climate mitigation policy, which aims to mitigate the causes of climate change, climate adaptation policy promotes adjustment to human or ecological systems in response to expected or experienced impacts of a changing climate.